


It's time to live in the scattered sun

by rosa_himmelblau



Series: The Roadhouse Blues [34]
Category: Wiseguy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:40:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26105872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosa_himmelblau/pseuds/rosa_himmelblau
Summary: Vinnie likes humoring Sonny.
Series: The Roadhouse Blues [34]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1069713





	It's time to live in the scattered sun

"But what's wrong with it?" Sonny demanded.

"Nothing," Vinnie insisted. “I didn’t say anything was wrong with it.” He was trying not to laugh anymore, but he wasn't doing a very good job of it. Ronald, the salesman, was giving him a nasty look.

Vinnie couldn't blame him. Right now he looked like a guy who was going to blow Ronald's hefty commission for him.

"Well, if nothing's wrong with it, why shouldn't I buy it?" Sonny asked.

"I didn't say you shouldn't buy it! I didn't say anything at all."

"So what were you laughing at?"

"I wasn't—" Vinnie turned to the salesman. "Ron, could you give us a minute here, please?"

"Certainly, sir." Vinnie was going to be lucky to get out of the store without Ronald stabbing him with a coat hanger.

"What?" Sonny asked. "Huh? What?"

"I don't know what you're getting so upset about. I was just amused."

Sonny looked at the suit, which was a very nice summer-weight charcoal cashmere. "What's funny about it?"

"I wasn't laughing at the suit," Vinnie tried to placate him, but that didn’t go well.

“Oh, yeah? What were you laughing at?”

Yeah, well, it pretty much had to be Sonny or the suit. He’d’ve been better off sticking with it being the suit. "Look. You get up every morning and leave the house to go to an empty office to do work you could just as easily do at home. And you get dressed up in a suit and tie to do it. You gotta admit, that's eccentric." Months ago the word eccentric had come to Vinnie in a flash of brilliance, and he'd filed it away to use the next time they had a conversation like this. It sounded so much better than "you're nuttier than a fruitcake."

Sonny was looking at him as though he didn't know what he was talking about. Vinnie thought briefly about playing it safe and clamming up. "I mean, you could stay in your pajamas all day, what difference would it make?"

"Why would I want to stay in my pajamas all day?" Sonny asked, baffled. “I don’t even wear pajamas.”

Sonny wasn’t big on hypotheticals, so Vinnie couldn’t explain about the pajamas, or the fundamental difference between people who liked not having to get dressed and go out, and people who looked forward to it. It was something you either understood or you didn't. Sonny didn't, and he never would.

"The whole world doesn't want to just sit at home in their pajamas," Sonny explained. "That's why they've got restaurants, and people still go to the movies, because they like to go out. Besides, you made it impossible for me to keep working at home.

Vinnie nodded. He didn't want to have that argument again. How he had made it impossible for Sonny to work at home was by sleeping all day, or sitting on the balcony, smoking, or watching TV with the headphones on so the noise wouldn’t bother Sonny. Somehow, all of these things had gotten on Sonny's nerves, and he'd been driven from the apartment. So he'd gotten himself an office that he went to every morning. For the first month, Vinnie had gone back to bed after their work-out, while Sonny got ready for work, but if he did that, Sonny called him, wanting to know if he'd gotten up, not believing him when he lied and said he had. Now he stayed up, he ate breakfast with Sonny, and he waited until Sonny was gone to go back to bed. Vinnie couldn't believe Sonny didn't know what he was doing, but knowing and believing were two different things. Sonny went happily off to work with an image in his head of Vinnie awake and active.

And it was better that Sonny went to the office. They argued less. Sonny liked getting out. But knowing it was better didn't keep Vinnie from finding it hilarious that Sonny felt the need to buy himself a bunch of thousand dollar suits to wear to his office.

"Buy the suit," Vinnie said, and before Sonny could say anything, he added, "It looks really good on you."

Sonny smiled at him, then at himself in the mirror. "Yeah, it does, doesn't it."

All of which explained how Sonny ended up with two new suits—two because why buy one when you could buy two? But it in no way explained how Vinnie ended up with one, except that he acted a little too bored while Sonny was being fitted. Oh, and then there was the way Sonny looked at him when he tried it on.

"All I said was, I don't need it," Vinnie said. He looked at the dark blue fabric covering his thighs. “It’s nice, but I don’t need it. And where are my clothes?” He looked in the backseat, but all he saw there was Sonny’s second suit.

"Yes, you do," Sonny said, ignoring the last thing Vinnie said. "I couldn't take you with me the way you were dressed, they'd think I'd brought my own janitor."

"Where are we going?" Vinnie asked. He knew where his old clothes were, and that he'd never see them again. Ronald had probably taken them out back with a book of matches. "I thought you said we were going out to lunch."

"We will, after we look at this new office."

"What new office?" Vinnie asked.

"I'm getting a new office," Sonny said patiently, as though this wasn't the first time he'd mentioned it.

Vinnie tried to remember if maybe it wasn't the first time he'd mentioned it. He was pretty sure it was. "Why?"

Sonny shrugged. "The lease is coming up on the old one. Besides, I'm tired of the view. Anyway, this place I want to look at, the office staff comes with it."

Vinnie nearly laughed again. He started to ask what Sonny needed with an office staff when a sharp despondency struck him. Sonny was playing at having his old life back the way a kid plays at being a grown up. He wanted his suits, and office, and office staff for the same reason Vinnie had filled his first wallet with play money and painstakingly filled out the I.D. card that had come with it, as though it was as official a piece of identification as a driver's license; for the same reason he'd begged his mother for a house key to put on his first key chain, so it wouldn't be filled with nothing but old keys that went to nothing: they made him feel important. Vinnie's heart hurt. “Do you really gotta get a new office?” Maybe there was some reason Sonny was doing this, something to do with their security.

"What's the matter?" Sonny asked, surprised. "Do you like the old one that much? You never go there—"

“No, I just—” Vinnie took a deep breath. “Let’s go look at it.” But he couldn’t help asking, "Sonny, what would you do with an office staff?"

Sonny shrugged. "I dunno."

Vinnie stood leaning against the wall, watching Sonny talk to the real estate lady: smiling, occasionally touching her arm or hand, laughing at her mild little jokes. This was the Sonny he’d almost forgotten, the one who went down to the casino and flirted with the ladies and glad-handed the high rollers. Sonny didn’t get out enough, he didn’t see enough people.

The real estate lady left them alone, and Sonny came over and took hold of Vinnie’s sleeve, pulling him over to the enormous picture window. “So, whaddaya think?” Sonny asked. He tapped Vinnie on the arm, which meant give me a cigarette.

Vinnie gave him one, took one for himself. “It’s a great view,” he said. “Almost as nice as the one from home. But you know what? I think we should look some more.” Sonny had had a ball checking out the possible apartments Tracy had found for them. Why stop with the first office, when there were more of them out there, and more realtors to talk to? It was almost like having friends, right?

Sonny looked at him in surprise. “Why? You think there’s something better out there?”

Vinnie shrugged “Who knows? Maybe we’ll find something you like more.”


End file.
